


Heart in the Ocean

by RayneSummer



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Nat's in it now and she's great i love her so much, Science Bros, also i spelt her name wrong in the story its fine, everyone else is just mentioned so far, i just watched iron man 3 and this came into my head
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-05-02 03:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19191244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RayneSummer/pseuds/RayneSummer
Summary: Sure, he COULD tell them.Or he could watch their expressions as they realise one by one.It was mildly amusing (and slight payback for none of them being around when his house was literally bombed and he was presumed dead, but he wasn't a petty man so it was just amusing).





	1. Bruce

**Author's Note:**

> So the after-credit scene with Bruce and Tony made my day and this happened bc Science Bros but I don't actually know how to write them so .

Bruce, of course, was the first to notice. This was mostly because Tony physically asked the scientist to come to the tower so they could try something.

He didn't realise that the 'something' was him trying to be Tony's therapist.

"Look, I'm just not that kind of doctor," he protested, but Tony just gave him a look and started talking again. And not that Bruce didn't want to spend time with his friend, but he was pretty tired from jetlag and trying to understand science every day in general, so he just sort of sighed and leant back, preparing to sleep again and hoping the man wouldn't mind too much.

So it took Bruce a minute to realise that Tony had stopped talking.

He yawned and straightened up a little so he could gather what was going on and hopefully make a little sense of it before the engineer blew something up or... something. But Tony wasn't even off his sofa; he was still lying there, looking at something in his hands.

"You know, I was going to look at it closely, but I just decided it was easier to throw it in the ocean." 

Bruce squinted at him, trying to figure out what he was talking about and why he was holding a glass box.

"Bit like that film, Titanic? Apart from that was a necklace." Tony chuckled a little. "Maybe it was as important as a electromagnet; I don't know the full story."

Bruce took a deep breath. Trying to understand Tony was a bit like staying afloat on a sinking ship, now it was mentioned. Holding onto his patience - not that he was particularly annoyed; it was only slightly frustrating - he just went with it and continued the conversation.

"When did you watch Titanic?"

Tony smirked, amused that he had gotten the attention by mentioning a dramatic love story film. "Eh, some date night. Pepper likes the soppy movies sometimes. She tried to get me to watch Romeo and Juliet but I drew the line there."

"Okay, so why are you talking about necklaces?"

"Not the necklace, Bruce." Tony rolled his eyes and sat up to address his friend properly. "And, by the way, that didn't cross my mind until after I did it and went back to Pepper, whose presence reminded me of that stupid film."

Bruce was quiet for a moment. "It's not a stupid film," he muttered.

Tony resisted rolling his eyes again.

"Okay, sure. No, I mean, why do people throw stuff in the ocean? I just sort of did it because, well, that's where everything else went down, I guess. But in general, I mean, what's the point? Just being dramatic?"

"Yes, Tony, people throw things in the ocean to be dramatic." Bruce was more focused on the thing the engineer was holding that their slightly odd conversation. Tony's hands were still covering most of whatever was inside the glass box and Bruce frowned slightly, trying to work out what it was without asking.

However, the engineer noticed, of course, and with an exhale, set the box down next to him on the sofa, resting one hand on top.

Bruce read the inscription of the thing inside and quickly realised, settling his expression into an appropriate reaction. "Is... was that your first?" He asked slightly hesitantly, because he didn't want to bring up trauma (even though that's what they were technically MEANT to be doing here) but he was interested.

The other man huffed a tiny laugh. "Well, technically. Yeah. The first proper one."

"It's nice. Basic, but useful," Bruce replied a little too politely. Tony did laugh at that.

"Sure, if you're a fourteen year old average science student." The engineer drummed his fingers on top of the glass, thinking. "I guess it's not too bad. It did the job. Twice," he added, something present in his eyes as he reiterated the amount.

But he quickly recovered before Bruce could do anything more than look at him in brief concern, and gently tapped the box with his hand.

"Nah, I mean, I asked her to dump this one when I changed it out but she did this instead." He grinned. "Soppy, see? Anyway, so I was thinking about comparing the two but, like I said - threw it in the ocean."

"You... wait you mean the one before you discovered the new element?" Bruce asked, frowning.

Tony looked pleased he knew, even though he was a scientist and was in touch with Nick Fury and generally knew sciency things and also was probably told by Tony himself at some point.

"No, that one was upgraded, it wasn't a new one. And there were only a couple of back-ups, contrary to popular belief. And it's only popular belief because I think Rhodey would have tried to make some himself if I hadn't said I had several back ups for the thing that was keeping me alive."

Bruce rubbed his eyes, still listening but tired, so it took him a moment to react. "Was?" He questioned, blinking. "When did you make another new one?"

"I didn't." 

"Okay, so you're just using past tense for no reason."

"Brucie, does it look like I currently have an electromagnet in my chest?" Tony sounded oddly excited, so Bruce glanced him up and down and shrugged.

"I mean, it doesn't usually when you wear enough clothes that you can't see the light," he replied logically, and wondered if he could take a nap in his old room that Tony had set out for him, and everyone else, when they got together after the initial New York fiasco.

The man in question sighed and stood up abruptly, causing Bruce to squint up at him.

"I threw it into the ocean," he repeated.

Bruce blinked. "You... wait, the arc reactor - your current one?"

Tony nodded calmly. Bruce wondered if the engineer was finally out of his mind and whether they should get some help before Tony just straight-up died because even after knowing the man for a little while Bruce knew that there was a serious question of his personal safety when around himself.

"So you don't have one right now," he instead said, slowly.

Tony shook his head, looking like he was enjoying something and not like he was about to keel over, but Bruce shifted slightly all the same, just in case.

"And, uh. What about... the shrapnel? You know, the stuff that will literally kill you in your chest? Did you bring me here just to watch you die because I have to tell you, I'm not so thrilled about--"

Maybe he was rambling rather than responding how he really ought to and getting help or something, but he was very tired and Tony was being very cryptic and he really didn't have any idea if there was any danger in the current situation.

"There is no shrapnel."

Bruce stopped when the engineer interrupted him and looked up.

"Where, uh, did it go?" He asked dumbly. Again - super jet lagged. His usually fantastic mind was not keeping up with his tired body. Or the other way around. He was just really tired and really hoping his friend wasn't going to die in front of him (again? Sort of).

Tony shrugged, sitting back down, and now Bruce was aware of it, he could tell there was not slight but soft blue glow anywhere underneath the man's shirt.

"Magnet. Think they threw it away after the surgery. Generally you don't keep that stuff around. Unless you're me, of course," he added humourlessly. There was some kind of deliberate meaning behind the last words.

"Surgery?"

"Mm-hm."

"You had... wait." Brain finally catching up, Bruce blinked at Tony. "You had the shrapnel and the arc reactor removed, then threw it in the ocean?"

"Mm-hm." The engineer's fingers danced over the top of the one in the glass box that read 'Tony Start has a heart' and a couple of things, though not everything because he's really wasn't a therapist, fell into place for Bruce.

"Oh. Wow."

"Yeah."

"That... That's amazing and really brave, Tony." The man clearly didn't believe that himself, so Bruce reiterated. "I mean it. That's incredible."

He shrugged. "You know. Just. Everyday stuff."

It definitely wasn't, and it was clearly still a new and slightly raw topic, so Bruce let that go for now. He could convince Tony of his bravery later because there would be plenty of opportunities to point things out. Still, it was pretty impressive.

"So that's why you wanted me," he mused, eyeing the genius, who frowned as if offended.

"Well actually, I wanted you to listen to me as a therapist but apparently you 'don't do that'," he said, using exaggerated air quotes over the words with a glint of humour back in his eye that told Bruce he wasn't mad in the slightest.

They sat in silence for a moment.

"Hey. Do the rest of the team know?" Bruce asked expectantly.

There was that shit-eating grin. "Nope."


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if I'll actually finish this entire thing, but this came to me this evening and I had to write it. I love Tony and Nat so much. And this is so much better than the first chapter. Maybe I can actually write!

Natasha was, as always, the easiest.

She walked in one morning, files in her hand and dressed in casual clothes - JARVIS had already informed him that her gait suggested no urgency and her appearance further proved that, since Nat always dressed for action. Not that she wasn't wearing some kind of agent-spy clothes under her normal looking exterior, of course.

Tony had been kicked out his workshop by Pepper some two hours before and had decided that instead of eating breakfast or doing anything of the sort, he would work in the kitchen.

In actual fact, when Pepper had insisted he leave the downstairs room, he had grabbed the closest thing on the desk next to him as he was pushed towards the door, and he was only now realising that the thing happened to be his old arc reactor.

Not the one that she had put in a glass box thing and was stuffed somewhere in their bedroom because Tony still wasn't sure how he felt about it; no, he had just grabbed a half-broken one that happened to be on the desk beside the entrance. Although that wasn't altogether surprising, despite not having held an arc reactor since he threw the current one into the Malibu ocean, the desks in the workshop weren't exactly cleared on a schedule, so this was some junk that had clearly been sitting there for several months.

Nevertheless, that is how Tony Stark found himself sitting at the kitchen island at nine in the morning staring at a hunk of metal with a small screwdriver in one hand.

It was the only tool he could find in the room's drawers, which again wasn't actually surprising considering the amount of workshops and other places where tools were actually supposed to be stored in the tower.

The elevator opened and, as JARVIS had informed him, there stood Natasha Romanoff in civilian clothes with some papers in her arms.

"Good morning."

"Oh, is it?" 

The sarcastic reply didn't bother Nat in the slightest and she continued to pay little attention to him as she flicked through the paperwork with one hand, wandering out of the lift and towards the table.

In fact, for a master assassin spy, it took her a fair amount of time to notice exactly what Tony was doing in the kitchen this early in the morning.

Not that he didn't get up early - or indeed in this case, not sleep for a day or so; he couldn't remember exactly what Pepper said as she pushed him out of the workshop - or belong in the kitchen, but still. The point stood.

In fact, it was only as he sighed and lifted the arc reactor with one hand aloft so he could get a better a look at the thing to see if there was any point tinkering with it that there was a sudden silence.

The rustling of papers and click of heels on the shiny floor stopped so abruptly that it also took Tony a moment to realise what had happened. He lowered the metal again and blinked at Nat, who now stood stock-still, not moving an inch.

It wasn't just the silence that threw him; it was the way she was posed. To a regular person it wouldn't look as though she was reacting at all, but Tony felt it in the air more than in her expression, and it took him a moment to place it. It was the same feeling he got when the team were ready to fight the newest dumbass of the week.

It was battle-ready.

But when she spoke, her tone was soft and calm as ever. "Mr Stark."

"Miss Rushman." 

They had adopted using their official titles from when she was undercover and they first met sometimes. It confused Steve for a while, which was so amusing that they both asked Bruce, after explaining, not to tell the captain what it was. Clint, of course, already knew, and Thor wasn't bothered, since having at least two names was fairly common on other worlds, apparently.

"Shouldn't that be in your chest?" She asked, slowly lowering the paperwork to the table in movements so slight no one else would guess she was capable of leaping into action in a second. "You know, keeping you alive?"

Tony immediately recalled Bruce's reaction and, since Nat was maybe slightly quicker than the scientist, decided to play along before she figured it out.

He glanced, expression schooled into surprised, at the act reactor in his hand. "This?" He gave her a look. "I'm offended. You think this piece of junk would work?"

"I wouldn't know. Didn't you make it?"

Her gaze seemed unflinching and she continued to stand still, but Tony could feel her checking the atmosphere and his reactions and energy, and giving him a visual once over, all without moving at all. 

It didn't even take a minute.

Again, in the slightest way possible, invisible to an onlooker who wouldn't know better, she relaxed. The room that was a second ago charged with energy so tight as she raced through the situation and outcomes in her mind, figuring out what was happening and what needed to be done; what she could do; if there was need to prepare for any kind of battle.

Just as smooth and measured as before, she slowly looked back to the paperwork on the table, and he knew that she knew he was okay.

Nat would never, ever, take her attention off him - or anyone - if she thought there was even the slightest chance of danger.

Nonetheless, he pouted. "You really take the fun out of things, Romanoff."

"That's what I'm here for," she replied without missing a beat, and found the paper she was looking for, carefully removing it from the small stack and walking over to place it next to the old arc reactor that Tony had put back down.

She knew, but she had to make sure. There was no margin for error in any aspect of her life.

As Tony suspected, she put her hand on his shoulder in the best way Nat knew how to show affection. Her gaze ever so slightly glanced from the reactor to his chest, scar hidden underneath a black t-shirt, and then to meet his eyes, which were bright with amusement.

Giving his shoulder a quick squeeze, she just nodded once and let go.

"And you're doing alright?" She asked as she walked back to the paper stack on the other end of the table, continuing a conversation that mostly wasn't verbal.

He nodded as she nestled the papers back into her arms, knowing she needed to hear the serious response. "Always."

Nat paused for another moment, double and triple checking. No margin for error. It was only a few seconds and then she was off, walking back towards the elevator, paper crinkling, heels clicking. She pushed the correct button and glanced back at Tony.

"Fill that out. I'll be back to collect it in an hour." She looked down as the doors closed, hiding her smile.

Not because she was embarrassed to show feelings or any of that crap. But because she was proud, and pride was a personal journey as much as it was about someone else. And she knew he knew how she felt anyway.

No one could really figure out how to two got so close so fast. They understood each other in a way some couldn't. 

As the lift descended, Tony looked down at the form. SHIELD was forever dealing in forms, which, for someone with some of the most advanced technology, most of which he had personally made, seemed ridiculous to him.

In the top left-hand corner, it said today's date, and written underneath were the clear words, 'Return tomorrow'.

He smiled and shook his head. She knew he wouldn't have the stupid thing done by an hour. That wasn't what she meant. She just needed to make sure that his 'always' really did mean 'forever'.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DON'T KNOW WHAT ENDINGS ARE  
> also no I don't actually think shield deals in paperwork or that Nat delivers or has anything to do with its paperwork whatsoever, but that's what the story needed so just take it.  
> To quote tumblr,   
> it's missing them hours. crey.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this sucks but I wrote it so take it. Idk if I'll actually do more chapters bc this took me a while really and turned out to be more difficult that I thought.


End file.
